Screaming Ascent from Chaos

Why the quotation marks, you might be asking yourself? Because I’m mad about it. That’s why. What are you looking at? Hmm?? Think it’s funny, do ya?

The quotation marks are there because the following series (which will eventually be added to a new gallery over *waves hands* there) was commissioned by my brother on the stipulation that I make them effortless sketches. I explained to him that my effortless sketches usually have arrows and lettering in them to explain what the bizarre scribbles are meant to be. He then asked to make them look like effortless sketches.

My brother isn’t an artist in the traditional sense, so I forgave him.

But I do not so easily forgive myself. These “sketches” took a lot of work. They weren’t effortless. They weren’t doodles. They were hard. I’m still mad about the quotation marks because I dearly wish to be so proficient and talented an artist that I could just whip one of these puppies out over morning coffee. I’m not.

Yet.

And that’s the key, I suppose. At any rate, these sketches taught me a lot about how to do this kind of drawing in Adobe Photoshop. I got better over the course of the project, and, while I’m still a long ways from whipping one out before the steam cools on my morning beverage, I’m a heck of a lot closer than I was.

Without further ado, here is “Sketch” number 1:

My brother spent ten years writing an epic fantasy novel. I loved it. I did quite a bit of art for it over the years, and when he asked me for a series of sketches which could become a calendar, I was delighted. The above specimen was one of the first… and it shows. The flaws are wildly apparent to me now, so long after the fact. But it has some good points, too. I hope you will all see the gradual improvement of my craft as I post more of the series soon. *gulp*